EBU Technology & Innovation – Opinion: Surfing the waves of change as an intelligent follower

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Richard Waghorn, Director of Operations, Technology and Transformation, RTÉ

The pandemic has forced us all to change, quickly. At RTÉ, we have implemented some changes in a few days, with new ways of working that were previously unthinkable: when choice is no longer an option, necessity drives innovation.

Self destruction

Of course, relying on an external disruptor, such as a global pandemic, to force change is not a sustainable model. We need to interrupt ourselves all the time to make sure we are ready for the next wave of change, and the next. If dealing with change is challenging, given the resource constraints and regulated environments in which we operate, failing to prepare for change is disastrous.

When I first came to RTÉ, I told the tech teams that we had to be smart followers. We didn’t need to be the first to catch the woodworm: this risks wasting the money and limited resources we have. Instead, we had to be the second mouse to get the cheese – the crafty follower often secures a lasting competitive advantage.

Being an intelligent follower required us to break the established norms. To be ready to ride the next wave of change, we needed to be agile, efficient and smart in the way we invested and innovated. Over time, we’ve shifted the focus on investments from upgrades and maintenance to transformative projects – projects that are now delivering real value across the organization. We are unlocking efficiency in every area of ​​the business, enabling us to better serve and reach our audience. Projects like our private cloud, our content management system and storage platform, our flexible TV studios and new productivity solutions are doing their job: they have revolutionized the way we work, facilitated change and, finally, they allowed RTÉ to strengthen its game.

Culture of innovation

And we are becoming smarter innovators. Although RTÉ does not have a research and development function, we have teams of people who want to push the limits. Using collaborative approaches, we are building a culture of innovation that helps our people think beyond their current horizon and see the waves of change that are coming.

We are now in the third year of participation in the IBC Accelerator program: this year RTÉ will be co-champion of five projects, covering 5G, LEO satellites and AR / VR. Technology and operations personnel are involved in various EBU groups and we continue to innovate with projects that will transform the way we work. And, along the way, we’ve won two IBC Innovation Awards.

Getting the right smart follower strategy right means we can make the organization more agile and efficient and better prepared for change. The proof of the smart follower strategy is in our response to COVID-19. Part of this response is due to the smart investments we have made, but it is also part of building a culture that is more conditioned to face and respond to change. Self-induced interruption has (so far) paid off.

This article was first published in issue 48 of tech-i magazine.

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